Two of my oldest chess friends have died in the last few days.
Jimmy Adams (1947-2026) was an outstanding chess historian, writer and editor whose books, often on players who just missed out on world championship opportunities, are very highly regarded.
Malcolm Lightfoot (1950-2026) was one of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club’s strongest players between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, before moving to Suffolk, where he returned to chess in 2012.
Here’s a position from one of Malcolm’s games for you to analyse this week.
It’s White’s move in Lightfoot – Cowlrick (Charlton Open 1973).
Which moves would you consider? Which one would you choose? How would you assess this position?
Congratulations to Maks, who was the first to come up with the solution, and thanks to all who contributed to the discussion on our WhatsApp Knight School group.
Losing IM Gavin Wall last summer was an enormous blow to Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club in so many ways.
Gavin was our long-standing London League captain and top board in our Thames Valley League team, playing an integral part in the club as both a player and an organiser. and a cheerful, sociable and friendly presence at all our events.
He had also been, for many years, a vital part of Richmond Junior Chess Club. He was one of the club’s very early members back in 1975, and later returned to help at the club during the 1990s and early 2000s, running our morning group for primary school age children with me as well as doing a lot of higher level coaching and playing very many simuls.
Here he is last June, giving a simul at our twinning event with Fontainebleau.
We now have a trophy in his name which, with the blessing of his family, will be competed for in an annual challenge match between Richmond Junior Chess Club and Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club.
The inaugural match will take place at Orleans Park School, Richmond Road, Twickenham (10 minutes walk from our new venue at Cambridge Park Bowls Club) on Saturday 20 June, from 13:00 to 17:30. Two teams of eight players, rated from 1100 to 1700 will play two rounds of FIDE and ECF rated Standard Play, with a time control of 50 minutes per player plus 10 seconds per move. Before the first round the two teams will exchange team lists and the captains will toss for colour. The winning team captain will decide which colour his or her team will play with in the first round. In the second round, the teams will play with reversed colours, and the visiting team (RTCC) will swap players pairwise, so that their board 1 will play on board 2, their board 2 on board 1, all the way down the order. The games will all be broadcast live on lichess.org, chess.com and on chessbase.com. We hope also to broadcast live commentary on the match – more on this later!
Our team will be captained by Karl Stand. He’s already very close to a full team, so if you’re rated between 1100 and 1700 and would like to be considered, do get in touch with him quickly.
You can find more information on the RJCC website here.
Our last Thames Valley League match of the season pitched our A team against second placed Hammersmith A. With nothing at stake we hoped they might not be at full strength, but that wasn’t the case. We were outrated heavily on all except the top board.
It was great to welcome Nick, an RJCC star 45 years or so ago, back to competitive chess.
Given the disparity in ratings a heavy defeat was to be expected, but Alastair scored an excellent win with t he Black pieces against a much more recent RJCC star.
Here’s the game: click on any move for a pop-up window.
Thanks to captain Maks and to all who played in this match, and indeed all our matches this season.
Still to come we have a London League match, again against Hammersmith, which was scheduled for 2 June, but has been postponed due to the tube strike and will now take place on Tuesday 7 July.
My latest Minor Piece tells the story of a group of chess problemists from Broadmoor, in the terminology of the times a criminal lunatic asylum, in the 1920s.
You’ll find several problems there for you to solve: here’s another one, composed by the rather mysterious LC Hallam.
#2 Laurence Cyril Hallam The Referee 29-04-1929
Although positions like this would never occur in a game, many chess teachers believe that solving problems of this nature is a great way of improving your tactical skills, powers of calculation, creativity and imagination.
When they were learning chess the Polgar sisters, for example, solved many hundreds of composed problems of this nature.
Can you find the solution to this one? It’s White to play and mate in 2 moves against any Black defence.
Chess by correspondence, in the middle decades of the last century, was a very popular activity.
It’s still played occasionally, by email rather than post of course, and there’s no restriction concerning engine usage. Consequently, almost all games, with your Stockfish taking on my Stockfish, result in draws. But there are those who enjoy this, and the fascinating positions which might arise.
This position is taken from a game posted on Facebook today by US correspondence player Frederick Rhine. Frederick was playing White against Joe G Tanti.
It’s White’s move. How should play continue? How would you assess this position?
It’s too hot to do anything else today, so have a fun Bank Holiday analysing this position.
What will probably be the final Chess Heroes book (although I have a few ideas for future booklets) is now available to download or read online here.
Chess Heroes: Games Book 2 presents 34 games, including examples of play from all World Champions and some of the most famous encounters in chess history.
Your job in each game is to take the winning side and try to guess the moves. I believe this type of activity is one of the best ways to improve your chess.
This is a position from Game 32: Bai Jinshi – Ding Liren. Here’s the question – and the answer, taken from the book.
Choose a move for Black.
20… Rd4
Score 10 points for this move, bringing the rook into play. As it happens, h5 is equally good so I’ll give you 10 points assuming you’d find Rd4 next move. 5 points for Rd6, the next best option.
Bonus Question 4: What would you play now if White played 21. exd4?
Answer: An easy 5 points for Nxd4, forking king and queen.
As a rough guide, I’d say that most of the games in this book are most suitable for players round about 1500-1750 strength (Game 5, for instance, would be great for 1000 strength players).
If you’re a beginner, start with the Chess for Heroes book. If you’re, say, 500-1000 strength, read the Checkmates, Tactics, Openings and Endings books in parallel.
If you’re above 1000 strength, the first Puzzles and Games books will be great for you. When you’ve completed these books, move on to the second Puzzles and Games books.
You can download them here or, if you want hard copies (the second Puzzles and Games books are not yet published) buy them either on Amazon or directly from the author.
The final Chess Heroes book, Chess Heroes Games Book 2, will be available in pdf format within the next day or two. I’m sure you’re all looking forward to it.
By way of a taster, here’s a position from one of the featured games.
Black to play: how would you continue here?
I’ll tell you more about both the position and the book later in the week.
Two vital relegation matches this week, with mixed fortunes for our teams.
On Wednesday we faced Streatham 1 in the London League, hoping for at least a draw.
A great result against a higher rated team, with excellent wins from Mike, Caspar and John, the last two against much higher rated opponents. It could have been even better as well, with Iain and Alastair both erring in time trouble. Alastair also missed a win in the opening.
Here’s the current league table. We’re not mathematically safe yet, but Lewisham’s last two matches are against Cavendish and Wood Green.
The following evening our TVA team faced Kingston A, perhaps the strongest amateur club team in Britain, who, following their usual maximalist policy, fielded an exceptionally strong team with an IM down on board 4.
The whitewash wasn’t unexpected. We had chances in several games but didn’t take them. Alastair and Ian were both level until committing immediately fatal oversights.
Congratulations to Kingston, who may well be, at least by some measures, the best chess club in the country at the moment. They’re covering all bases, finishing 2nd (as CSC/Kingston) in the 4NCL, fielding very strong teams in local leagues, running internal competitions, doing a lot of community outreach, and they will be starting a junior club, which I’m sure will be very successful, later in the year.
Even a point in this match might have made a big difference, as you’ll see from the current league table.
We’re assuming only one team will be relegated. Wimbledon A, who won Division 2 will want to be promoted, but we understand that Maidenhead B, who have finished 2nd, will probably decline promotion.
Ealing A travel to Kingston B on Monday, needing a win to overtake both Surbiton and ourselves on game points. If they win, we’ll need to draw our last match against Hammersmith on 28 May to be certain of staying up. A 2½-3½ defeat will leave us level with Surbiton and facing a play-off for survival.
Thanks, as always, to all who played in this week’s matches, especially Caspar, John and Alastair who played in both of them.
